I’ve been looking into rash guards in an effort to wear less sunscreen. Not only is good mineral block (I wouldn’t use chemical block, but if you’re reading my blog you probably knew that already!) expensive, but also I have yet to find one that doesn’t make my face break out. And it’s time consuming to apply sunscreen. But I am pale with light eyes and many moles and have skin cancer in my family, so I need to be careful. The hats and ugly shirts made of so-called SPF fabric I have been wearing for years have been a clunky compromise. I kept waiting for someone in the fashion industry to notice that people–and kids–wanted cute rash guards. Surely there is money to be made here. Well this year the cute rash guards finally arrived. So I wrote about them for The New York Times. Know of other cute versions? Please post in comments. I’m also hoping someone will make one in the USA from recycled materials with “good” dyes and manufactured following Fair Trade practices. Maybe that’s next summer’s article.

My latest post for Elizabeth Street was actually inspired by a reader question and offers some of my safety thoughts for beach goers. I find it frustrating we’re in an environmental moment where I even have to answer this sort of question, but we are.

Click through to read my thoughts about the environmental hazards–with regard to water and sand quality–to watch out for as you splash and build sand castles on the beach this August.